Glastonbury, what can I say that will do it
justice. It was such an epic experience that what I am about to write can never
adequately describe the spectacle,
mayhem and exhilaration one feels during
this week long party.
Bob and I choose to arrive early on the
Tuesday so that we could get a fairly close spot in the campervan fields, and
we were glad we arrived by two because as it was we still had a fifteen minute
walk into the festival each day. This walk turned out to be worth every tired step
for the peaceful vistas and quiet of the camper fields and the ability to
access clean toilets and water facilities. The tent camping fields are located
within the festival and usually adjacent to main stages where sleeping would
not be a possibility without extremely good ear protection, and avoiding having
your tent submerged in a sea of mud would also be impossible.
We visited the festival on both the Tuesday
and the Wednesday although the music didn’t officially start on the smaller stages
until Wednesday night and on the main stages till Friday. Even though the main stages didn’t start till
Friday night by Wednesday night 70% of those coming had arrived already and
were starting hard.
Glastonbury caters for everyone and I mean
everyone. There are over 100 stages scattered over 900 acres in the Fields of
Avalon within the Somerset County. There are specialised children’s fields
featuring rides, nursery rhyme stages and wandering performers, and then there
are the other stages for the adults with music ranging from your traditional
rock to the most obscure dance genres.
Throughout all these stages you will often come across random art
installations such as remote control mechanical horses and fire breathing
dragons to major pieces of art on walls.
Performers and impromptu acts are also seen wandering all over sight
often breaking into chorus or stopping for a photograph.
The number one statement in the Virgins
Guide to Glastonbury says that you must be prepared to walk as you will
literally walk miles over your week there.
And this was certainly true. I literally dropped two notches on my belt
by the end of the week and my legs felt like I had hiked the Viking through the
Alpine National park. The second line is be prepared for mud. Glastonbury is
notorious for its lakes of mud and in many years the mud has been so extensive
you could wade chest deep in it. Luckily it was never above knee height during
this years festival and with my new ‘Wellies’ I was good to go dancing and
splashing away in the mud. I did however start to develop some serious blisters
and trench foot from the moisture in my boots after two days of fairly heavy and continuous rain. Of
course this is not enough to stop the desire to dance and enjoy what was a real
spectacle and definitely a bucket list experience.
There were many, many acts that we saw but
within the limits of a blog I will have to share my absolute highlight stage,
which is know as ‘The Temple’. After wandering and dancing throughout various
parts of the festival at around 3am we came across The Temple and began the
forty minute queuing to get into the highly desirable open air club. The Temple
is a round venue with no roof and to enter you must climb a flight of stairs
which brings you to the top of the venue. Looking down, the sides are filled
with stepped platforms around an ampitheater which eventually leads down to a
earthen dance floor. All the platforms and the central dance floor were filled
with electrified dances crazily vibrating to the beats of Vinyl Junkie. The experience was amazing when combined with
the flashing of the strobes and the rainbow lighting and laser show. I can only
imagine this being the closest I would ever get to experiencing an early 90’s
UK rave. We found ourselves perched
about half way down the theatre and settled in for the next set which featured
an Old Skool rave set mixed by none other than Rat Pack, DJ Slipmatt, Daniel
Billy Bunter and the Ragga twins (all extremely famous and highly revered DJ’s
in the early 90’s) Lets just say I was in heaven! I literally danced my arse
off for three hours without stopping. My feet were covered in layers of mud and
my legs had been walking me around for three days through the mud, but I could
hardly notice over the addictive beats, old school piano sounds and uplifting
vocals. The Temple was literally my dancing heaven.
Another stage which must get a mention, is
Arcadia. The night before visiting The Temple we watched the landing show.
During this Arcadia the giant spider stage made from old military parts, scrap
metal and machinery, bellows fire, lasers and wicked lighting all while a set
of Happy Hardcore was screaming out of the speakers. On top of that girls
spinning on ribbons dangled over the crowd performing various acrobatics in
time to the music.
Next to the giant spider a six wheel bug
truck also featured a speaker system playing Jungle music. Within the vicinity
of these two sound systems there were numerous mechanical art pieces many
breathing fire. One of the most unusual art installations was a giant robotic
hand, which could be controlled by festival guests. After a very quick
instruction session you were hoisted up on to a platform were you could place
your hand into a small glove which then controlled a giant mechanical hand that
could be used to pick up, crash and throw cars to the ground.
One of the busiest acts featured was Dolly
Parton. According to the Glastonbury paper (yes they had a printing press and
printed a newspaper for guests) she had the highest turnout for her set. I
really enjoyed her performance and can’t really comment on the controversy of
whether she was lip-syncing or not. To be honest I didn’t really care as
singing along with another 120 000 people to her songs was an amazing thing to
be involved in.
Another act that had a ridiculously high
turnout was Kasabian which perfomed on the same stage and was the closing
show. Kasabian are definitely performers
and knew how to amp up the crowd. I saw a record number of flares being lit
during the hour and a half set and in front of the stage many groups hoisted
flags while they danced and sung along.
For those of you thinking though that a
week of music, dancing and mayhem is too much there was still so much more that
you could explore. Bob and I honestly felt that we didn’t even get a chance to
touch many of the more relaxed areas such as the gardens, healing fields and
chill out zones. There were even craft areas you could go to learn trades such
as leatherwork, woodcarving and flower arranging. If you like food and
shopping, there were numerous choices for both. The food was actually nutritious
and not the standard festival fare I had expected.
On the whole I can say it was the best
commercial festival I had experienced and I would even go as high as saying it
would be worth the flight from Australia to be able to go again. Of course it’s
the people you go with that make it even more special, lots of love for sharing
a special festival to Lauren, Ben, Jim, Chris, Max, Meagan, Sophie, Lee, Chez
and Louise and of course Bob xx
No comments:
Post a Comment